The Ecomcrew Ecommerce Podcast

If you’ve been to a handful of ecommerce live events, chances are you’ve met Carole Rains. She’s a regular at these functions and always has a ready smile for anyone. Carole Rains didn’t become a solopreneur until later in life. She started her career in the pharmaceutical industry and then transitioned to becoming a chef. The years and monotonous pace led her to an interest in ecommerce. Today, she’s the proud owner of two stores, Rustic Artistry and Emu Joy. In this episode, you’ll learn: Carole’s thoughts about getting more women in ecommerce (3:57) Carole’s take on getting into ecommerce later in life (7:31) How she started her first store (11:22) How she got her second store (11:39) How she makes her businesses work for her lifestyle (14:14) Challenges she faces in running her businesses (23:00) This episode is part of our Women’s Month celebration. We’d love to see more women in the ecommerce industry, so if you are a female business owner, head over to www.ecomcrew.com/underthehood and tell us your story. We’d love to feature you on the podcast. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

  Many people view blogging as a project that requires a specific set of skills and years of writing experience. Both of these certainly help but they're not a prerequisite to getting started. As Jennifer Garza attests, it’s more important to just start writing.  In 2011, the mompreneur iSaveA2Z.com, a platform where she could conveniently share tips on how to save money. The website got so much traction that it now has a million monthly views on average. Along the way, Jennifer went through a lifestyle change. She discovered and fell in love with the keto diet. So much so that she created another website around it, Low Carb Inspirations. In a span of a year, she’s landed a cookbook deal and is now the proud author of Keto Friendly Recipes: Easy Keto for Busy People. In this episode, you’ll learn: How being frugal led to blogging (5:34) How she achieved success as a blogger (6:25) The journey that led to her second website, Low Carb Inspirations (9:38) The true key to her success (20:51) Her ecommerce plans (30:59) I hope this episode inspires all our listeners out there to pursue blogging, whether as a jumpoff point to ecommerce or to supplement existing marketing efforts for your brand. As Scott once said in this podcast, “Attention is the new currency.”  And putting the word out is certainly one way to get more eyeballs on your product. This episode is part of our Women’s Month celebration. We’d love to see more women in the ecommerce industry, so if you are a female business owner, head over to www.ecomcrew.com/underthehood and tell us your story. We’d love to feature you on the podcast. Connect with amazing people like Jennifer at ecommerce events like Scott Voelker’s Brand Accelerator Live. Get tickets. Finally, if you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

Today's guest is another lady boss who did not initially set out to build a multi-million dollar business. All Daisy Jing wanted to do was to solve a problem that deeply affected her and to share her journey with other people who are going through the same struggle. Her willingness to openly share her struggles and her desire to help other people attracted followers. In her own words, "Relatability and authenticity really put me on the map." Years later, she's running a multi-million dollar company, Banish, serving the very same people she always wanted to help. In this episode you'll learn: How Banish was founded almost by accident (6:58) How she gained massive following on Youtube and how to build trust with your audience (12:18) How to find the right kind of influencers and how to build successful relationships with them (14:26) The lack of women in ecommerce (2:22) How Daisy handles the impostor syndrome (24:10) Why successful business owners didn't go to college (26:42) This episode is part of our Women's Month celebration. We'd love to see more women in the ecommerce industry, so if you are a female business owner, head over to www.ecomcrew.com/underthehood and tell us your story. We'd love to feature you on the podcast. Thanks for listening! Until the next one, happy selling.

It might be July, but this month, we’re highlighting the talented ladies among our midst.  I first got the idea for doing this after noticing that there wasn’t a single female attendee at our last live event in Hong Kong. It got me thinking about how there ought to be a lot more women in ecommerce but it remains to be a male-dominated industry. In an effort to bring more attention to the accomplishments of women in the ecommerce space, I’m having an all-female guest list. Throughout the month I’ll be talking to boss ladies who are running their own online businesses. As this is a premier, it’s only fitting to start off with Natalie Mounter. Natalie owns and runs a wedding decor shop called Totally Dazzled. But around here, she’s known as the OG superfan.  Here’s a peek at what we covered. Losing sight of the “why” Like many solopreneurs, Natalie went through a year where she scrambled just to get a seat at 'the million-dollar table'. While her business grew 2x in revenue, she didn't quite hit 1M and ended up losing money when she outsourced Facebook advertising to two agencies. Social media and its impact Over the years, Natalie’s business has gained quite a following on social media. But her brand shines brightest on Pinterest. Totally Dazzled has 450K monthly viewers and Natalie uses the platform for leads. She also enjoys doing tutorials that feature her products so she plans to pump more content into the brand's YouTube channel for her 20K subscribers to share and enjoy. On the Facebook side of things, she keeps the followers engaged via Facebook Live. She later turns these sessions into ads, which have been doing quite well. She and I delve deeper into Facebook marketing and explore other avenues where she can use the platform to build new audience streams and build a bigger following, which hopefully translates to greater profit. Register for EcomCrew Premium so you can have access to tools that can help you jumpstart your online business. Want a physical copy of our tried-and-tested Amazon launch strategy complete with examples and screenshots?  Get your free book here. Get advice from Mike and have your business featured on the podcast.  Sign up for the EcomCrew Roadshow today!  Join season two of the 5 Minute Pitch by filling out and submitting the application form. Finally, if you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

Ten episodes ago, I talked about some of the math involved in running an ecommerce business. Episode 250 ended up being one of our most impactful episodes to date. So I thought it would be a good idea to do a deep dive on all the essentials of ecommerce accounting. To do this effectively, I needed to have an expert on board to break down all these things with me. Luckily, I sat next to Scott Scharf and his wife at a dinner during this year's Ecommerce Fuel Live and he agreed to come on the show. A Little Bit about Scott Scott Scharf is the co-founder of Catching Clouds, an accounting services company that caters specifically to online businesses. Through the company, he’s worked with ecommerce entrepreneurs for nearly eight years, helping them stay on track financially. What We Covered In this episode, Scott and I go full Ecommerce Accounting 101. Here are some of the basic concepts and terminologies discussed. The most important function of accounting is to have financials you can look at on a daily or monthly basis that will tell you how your business is doing. Profit & Loss Statement (P&L) - all the components that make up your top-line revenue; also called an income statement. An example would be Amazon sales. Cost to Goods Sold (COGS) - shows how much it costs to create, ship, and sell a product/widget. Shipping cost would be included here. Subtracting COGS from P&L would give you the Gross Profit. Subtracting your operation expenses (e.g. payroll) from Gross Profit would give you your Net Profit. Balance Sheet - a report of the company’s assets (e.g. inventory, money in the bank) and liabilities (e.g. business loans). Listen to the entire podcast to get a grasp of all these accounting basics to make your better sense of your financials. EcomCrew Premium is opening on June 26th through July 1st. Pre-register today so you can have access to tools that can help jumpstart your online business. We’re having a free webinar tomorrow! Learn email marketing fundamentals and hear us talk about our favored strategies to capturing emails and building your list. Subscribe to the 5 Minute Pitch podcast and get the chance to win over $5K in prizes. Want a physical copy of our tried-and-tested Amazon launch strategy complete with examples and screenshots?  Get your free book here. Join season two of the 5 Minute Pitch by filling out and submitting the application form. Finally, if you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

Season 1 of the 5 Minute Pitch was a great success. I got to hear and weigh in on the pitches of a diverse set of entrepreneurs, each one putting themselves out there to make their dreams come true. Another awesome thing about that first season was the response we got from people who watched the show on YouTube. Now we’ve made it possible to listen to all of the pitches whether you’re working out at the gym or during your daily commute. Introducing the 5 Minute Pitch Podcast. Listen to all your favorite contestant’s pitches at different stages of the competition anytime. Today, I offer you guys a preview of what the episodes are like. Here’s one of my favorite contestants doing his round one pitch. Subscribe to the 5 Minute Pitch podcast and get the chance to win over $6K in prizes. Want a physical copy of our tried-and-tested Amazon launch strategy complete with examples and screenshots?  Get your free book here. Consult with Mike at your business premises and be featured on the podcast. Sign up for the EcomCrew Roadshow today! Join season two of the 5 Minute Pitch by filling out and submitting the application form. Finally, if you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

Over the past couple of weeks, you’ve heard a handful of podcasts recorded in the Philippines. You’ve heard from Mia and all our employees, including Abby and Muffins. If you’ve listened to episode 256, these ladies talked a little bit about their specific responsibilities for EcomCrew. But what distinguishes them from the rest is the fact that they work directly for Dave and me. So, I wanted to get them back on the podcast and hear their perspective on what it’s like to work on the brand and for the ‘EcomCrew Guys’. Mia didn’t leave the room soon enough so she’ll be making a cameo on this episode too. Taking the initiative I’m the type of employer who doesn’t want to micromanage so I value initiative in the members of my team. The ladies had to pick up this skill and hone it while working for the brand and now have confidence and autonomy in their tasks. First time in Hong Kong As you all know, I love to travel. I also enjoy it when I’m with first-timers in a favorite city. Hong Kong is certainly that city. Last April Abby and Muffins were able to join us there for the EcomCrew Mastermind and check out the booths in the Global Sources Summit. It was their first international travel and I daresay they both had a great time. Listen to the full podcast with these awesome ladies of EcomCrew. Want a physical copy of our tried-and-tested Amazon launch strategy complete with examples and screenshots?  Get your free book here. Get advice from Mike and have your business featured on the podcast? Sign up for the EcomCrew Roadshow today! Join season two of the 5 Minute Pitch by filling out and submitting the application form. Finally, if you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

Dave’s back on the podcast with me to talk about one of our favorite topic - tariffs (insert sarcasm). As anyone caught in this plight will know, the US and Chinese governments have reached another impasse in the ongoing trade talks. This resulted in the Trump administration raising tariffs from 10% to 25% on $200 billion worth of goods imported from China effective this month. Here are some key points from our discussion. How are things looking? Both sides of the fence are playing it tough in this trade war for distinctly different reasons. Trump believes he’s a great negotiator and is convinced that he will sway the Chinese and bring back manufacturing jobs to America. The Chinese, on the other hand, has learned not to kowtow to any country that perceives itself as a ‘superpower’. It stands firm on its position and will retaliate if necessary to push their trade agenda forward. What are the possible implications? On June 17, 2019, the implementation of 25% tariffs on the remaining $300 billion worth of goods (List 4 | the final tranche) will be reviewed. If a trade deal isn’t reached, it could take effect late in the year. If Chinese imports are tariffed to the hilt, there would be inflationary consequences. How does an ecommerce company like yours prepare for this? Monitor growth Focus on profit instead of top-line growth Make sure cash is being used as effectively as possible Take a closer look at your debt and identify ways of clearing it with a lesser impact on your bottom line How can you ease the impact of these tariffs increases on your business? If your products have a low-profit-margin, increasing prices is inevitable. It’s also good to monitor invoices from your Chinese manufacturer and determine how you can cut back on those. And if this mess with tariffs has taught us anything, it’s to diversify, diversify, diversify. Source from different countries. China might be a manufacturing powerhouse but other countries like have their strengths too. Vietnam, for instance, produces great textile products. The situation is downright frustrating. But I hope that the insights shared in this episode can still be helpful to all ecommerce sellers out there impacted by the enforced tariffs increases. If you have questions or comments, I’d love to know. Please leave them in the comment section below. Want a physical copy of our tried-and-tested Amazon launch strategy complete with examples and screenshots?  Get your free book here. Get advice from Mike and have your business featured on the podcast?  Sign up for the EcomCrew Roadshow today! Join season two of the 5 Minute Pitch by filling out and submitting the application form. Finally, if you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes.   MORE RESOURCES: E182: When the Little Guys Get Caught in the Tariff War

Each year since starting Terran, I make it a point to travel to the Philippines to visit our team there. If you’ve been following the podcast since day one, you’d have heard me mention Cebu a couple of times. That’s where our team is located and every year, I would make the journey to touch base with them in person. Working with employees on the opposite side of the world is challenging. The time difference and slow internet in the Philippines are just some things you need to deal with. But I am truly grateful for the team that we’ve got. Not only are they able to overcome these challenges, but are able to produce stellar work that exceeds my expectations. There has been so much growth over the past two years. We had three employees to start with and now our Cebu office is home to 10 full-time employees, each making a significant contribution to the brand they work for. Get to know a little bit about our talented and hardworking team members in Cebu when you listen to this podcast. Want a physical copy of our tried-and-tested Amazon launch strategy complete with examples and screenshots?  Get your free book here. Want to get advice from Mike and have your business featured on the podcast?  Sign up for the EcomCrew Roadshow today! Join season two of the 5 Minute Pitch by filling out and submitting the application form. Finally, if you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling! RESOURCES: Episode 96: Our Philippines Team – Hiring and Maintaining a Team of Rockstar VAs Episode 249: How Our Filipino Team Reacted to the ColorIt Sale Tac9er Facebook Page

Today we’re joined by Scott Voelker of The Amazing Seller podcast. Scotty’s not just a personal friend but a comrade-in-arms in a number of ecommerce projects, the most recent being season one of the 5 Minute Pitch along with Steve Chou and Greg Mercer. Scott and I have many similarities when it comes to our background and how we’ve grown our respective ecommerce businesses. So, after hearing his presentation on ecommerce business sustainability at this year’s Sellers Summit, I got him on the show solo. Not everything works forever Ecommerce is a dynamic industry. It’s constantly evolving according to the latest market trends and who’s dominating it (big “bad” Amazon). Strategies that may have worked will lose their edge eventually. As Scott puts it, “Things that worked yesterday may not necessarily work today”. Innovation and a good understanding of the market are crucial for being successful long-term. Grab their attention “Attention is the new currency.” Speaking of marketplaces, what we’ve found that does work is capturing the market’s attention. How do you that? By being genuine and bringing something valuable to the table. After you’ve identified a target market, you’ll need to create a plan that grabs and sustains their attention. This usually involves putting out content in some form or another. But offering valuable content is only half of the picture. You also need to establish that trust with your audience. Do so by proving your expertise in the subject and your willingness to guide people who may not experts themselves, but are working towards getting on that level. Tune in to the full podcast episode for more insights on how you and your brand can navigate the changing tides of ecommerce and remain relevant in the years to come. And check out the resources section of this page for more information on an ecommerce event Scotty’s putting together in September.   We have a book and we’re giving it away for FREE. If you want a physical copy of our tried-and-tested Amazon launch strategy complete with examples and screenshots, get yours here. Want to get advice from Mike and have your business featured on the podcast?  Sign up for the EcomCrew Roadshow today! Join season two of the 5 MInute Pitch by filling out and submitting the application form. Finally, if you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling! Resources Brand Accelerator Live 2019 E187: How to Save on High-Quality Content for SEO – Under the Hood with Sebastien Taché